Welcome to Plans Creatively – your location to find inspiration, creativity, planning, tips, tricks, tutorials, and projects that I’ve created. I am Nikki, the owner and operator, creative mind, and creator behind “Plans Creatively.” I want to thank you for coming into this little sliver of the internet where I can showcase all the work and projects that have already been created and continue to create. There are many projects that I have made in the years that I have worked and created. I started when I was a teenager, with my creativity overflowing and needing an outlet for all these thoughts and ideas that were coming in too fast. I started with scrapbooking and cardmaking – something I had started with family members who were also into this type of creative outlet. After becoming a mom, my planner phase came and never left. I am a big organizer and planner – the OCD tendencies that I have serve a great purpose when it comes to keeping work/life balance with being a mother of two boys who definitely kept me on my toes.
Over the years, the creative papercrafting world began to evolve as well. Scrapbooking and cardmaking, while still popular among those who were passionate about it, started to lose a lot of interest locally with the changes in technology. Even the scrapbook world started to convert over to memory planning, which helped my creative outlet start to be focused on the planner world and community as well. Being that I was mom, with limited income but way too much creativity for my own good, I grew into the world of stickers and creating my own. I wanted to be able to do something that wasn’t seen everywhere, but ultimately would be customized and personalized specifically for myself. I started to create my own stickers, and everyone who was around me seemed to love them as well. That’s what created my Etsy shop, so I can showcase all the stickers and creations that I started making to share them with everyone. There were quite a few websites, online blogs, and other creative outlets (with many different names that came across these years). Plans Creatively was the name I came across after a long list of all the words. I settled on this name as a way to generalize all the websites and creative ideas that I had previously had. Planning something that I became very passionate about, and creatively designing, this was an outlet to stay consistent with growing and creating. Although I considered this name and brand a couple of million times afterward.
Plans Creatively on Etsy was created in 2018, officially online as a website, brand, Etsy shop, and creative outlet as a hobby/small business. The idea back then was that I had digitally created so many things that it felt selfish to just hold on to everything without an outlet to share it with others. So, I created the Etsy shop after I started to receive requests from those who saw these on my social media. I started creating listings on Etsy for those who wanted to print their own stickers with the files I already had available. After that, and a few more requests that had been made, I started to invest in a printer to be able to start creating stickers that can be shipped out to others. This is what started everything towards sharing and selling to others who were also passionate about planners (and their stickers!)
In 2020, life changed again for my family and me. My step-mother, the one who I was introduced into the scrapbooking, cardmaking, and planner with, had passed away due to the same thing that many did during that year. (Needs no further explanation, I think we can all understand and remember what happened that year.) She was just one of the people in my life who helped build my creative ideas, but was the one that I could no longer share this with. I helped my family lay her to rest (RIP, Linda), and that also involved sorting all the items within her scrapbook room and everything she built her life loving and creating with. My dad felt as though I’d be the best person for this job, as someone who understood that portion of her life, and as someone who shared the love for the craft. This is how I received a much larger portion of resources and supplies to mix with everything I had accumulated myself — as a crafter in any category — you know how quickly this grows! Having combined these elements with physical resources along with the digital designs that I had created previously for years, I had a baseline to create endlessly, make and grow everything, and fine-tune the craft I’ve always loved – just with many more options.
After a few more life changes that had occurred, I had found a lot more time on my hands and a lot of healing that I wanted to achieve. I removed a lot of things in my life, and within a lifestyle change within myself to focus highly within and on myself – I got to work. I spent a year healing and creating, as I wanted a healthy outlet that would provide me with just that. I put my nose to the grindstone, processing my entire life, childhood choices, life during motherhood, and now looking at a brand new, open path to change my future. Having spent my days creating as much as I possibly could, I pushed myself to learn new techniques, new projects, and ways to think outside the box. This led to many projects, learning many lessons of what to do, what works, what doesn’t work, and what does work. I absolutely love to learn, and this allowed me to grow my knowledge and style of my own. With the added benefit of healing myself, having some deep self-reflection work within myself, and having a healthy way to be create what I’ve always done but with much more vigor and dedication.
I ended up with a lot of healing and creative ideas that were made, but more importantly, I ended up with a whole lot of inventory. If you can imagine someone a bit isolated in the world, a lot of newfound free time was available to me, and way too many creative ideas – I planned and then got creative. I started planning the projects I wanted to make or were requested to be made by the supportive friends, family members, and clients online, and got to work. With a new hyper-focus for me to keep me busy, out of trouble, and a way to continue to grow, learn, and create. I made so many items physically, and continue to grow, slowly. I made one project, then created another and another. And before I knew it, I created a lot! Way more than I had realized. You can picture someone who just started creating any type of item, and then suddenly looks up to realize that they’ve created hundreds of items. That was how I realized I needed to think of some different options. The Etsy shop was already established with digital designs that continued to be sold, but I had so many different physical options around me that were created, and I needed to sell these locally to be able to move some of the work I had made. I was given a lot of pep talk from my biggest supporters. And I was convinced to try to sell within a market to share my creative projects with others. I received a lot of lovely feedback and encouragement.
I started selling locally, all the projects that I had spent a year creating at Serendipity. It is a small boutique locally that features many different vendors and handmade crafters under one roof. It’s a great location with a lot of awesome creators just like me!